Updating any WordPress version from 4.6.1 to 4.8.2 will most likely give you an error halfway through the process that will redirect you to the following link:
https://yoursitename.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2F
This error makes your WordPress Admin Dashboard inaccessible and cannot be fixed either by clearing the browser’s cache and history or deleting your website’s cache.
No matter if you already have or don’t have a backup of your site, I will show you how to fix the issue.
Why This Error Occurs?
This error has been brought to life by a mismatch between these global variables $wp_version and $wp_db_version.
WordPress 4.6.1 has $wp_db_version = ‘37965’; while WordPress 4.7 requires $wp_db_version = ‘38590’;
How To Fix It
The following steps turned to have fixed the issue and I haven’t got any problems so far with my website:
- Download the WordPress 4.6.1 .zip archive from WordPress.org
- Extract the WordPress installation zip archive
- Navigate to wp-includes/version.php of WordPress 4.6.1
- Replace version.php of WP 4.6.1 with version.php of WP 4.7 by using an FTP connection
Alternative Fix:
- Change the name of your plugins folder to plugins123 (or any other name other than plugins)
- Visit your /wp-admin page and insert your credentials if needed
- Click on the Update WordPress Database button
- Revisit your /wp-admin page to check if the fix worked
- Rename back the folder to plugins
Side note:
As you might have figured out earlier, you could’ve just changed the value of $wp_db_version to 38590 but this method won’t be valid if you have a different version of WordPress.
However, the steps above can be applied to any version of WordPress. Just download the previous version of your current WP version and it will do.
Now you’re ready to log in to your WP Admin Dashboard.
If you encountered problems during the process or have questions about it, leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible!
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